Sgt. La David Johnson
“He knew what he signed up for…” – Donald Trump
Why did it take Donald Trump 12 days to utter a single syllable about the attack on Niger that left 4 US servicemen dead and 2 wounded? Additionally, why did Trump make a callous comment to the widow of one of the fallen soldiers?
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According to Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate armed services committee, the Trump White House is not being forthcoming about the October 4th attack that killed Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, 35, of Puyallup, Washington; Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson, 39, of Springboro, Ohio; Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, 29, of Lyons, Georgia, and Sgt. La David Johnson, 25, of Miami, Florida. Sen. McCain has a valid point.
On Monday, Trump was asked by the media, “Why haven’t we heard anything from you so far about the soldiers that were killed in Niger?” His response was that he’d written their families personal letters and intended to call them in due time. He then went on a tangled tangent claiming Barack Obama and other previous presidents maybe did/maybe didn’t call the families of fallen soldiers.
“President Obama, I think, probably did sometimes, and maybe sometimes he didn’t. I don’t know. That’s what I was told. All I can do, all I can do is ask my generals. Other presidents did not call. They’d write letters. And some presidents didn’t do anything,” Trump claimed. “But I like the combination of, I like, when I can, the combination of a call and also a letter.”
Trump refused to discuss any details regarding the ambush or even say if the Pentagon was conducting an investigation. Instead, he chose to flip responsibility to the actions of former presidents and deflect questions to how he would offer his condolences to the families of the fallen.
“I will, at some point, during the period of time, call the parents and the families, because I have done that, traditionally,” Trump said without any real “tradition” to speak of.
For a man who can’t seem to go 5 minutes without tweeting about even the most mundane subjects, his 12-day silence on the deaths of 4 brave US servicemen should rightly come into question.
His eventual telephone call to a grieving widow of one of the deceased soldiers also deserves scrutiny.
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Nearly 2 weeks after the deadly attack, Donald Trump finally found time to call Myeshia Johnson, the wife of US Army Sgt. La David Johnson, telling her “he knew what he signed up for … but when it happens, it hurts anyway.”
Realizing his incredibly insensitive choice of words, Trump has since claimed he never said it. The White House also refused to comment, saying “The president’s conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private.” However, a Florida congresswoman who was present during the conversation did not mince words on what she overheard.
“Yes, he said it,” Rep. Frederica Wilson of Miami Gardens said. “It’s so insensitive. He should have not have said that. He shouldn’t have said it.”
Not surprisingly, Donald Trump spent the next 24 hours trying to save face and pretending he never said “he knew what he signed up for.” Naturally, he took to Twitter on Wednesday to say “Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!”
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Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2017
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However, the congresswoman rejected Trump’s claim, saying “I have proof, too.”
Wilson was present when the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, who is mother to his 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter and is expecting their 3rd baby in January, leaned over the US flag that draped her husband’s casket as it arrived at Miami International Airport. She was also present with members of Johnson’s family as they all listened to Trump’s conversation on speakerphone.
“So the president evidently is lying, because what I said is true,” Wilson said. “I have no reason to lie on the president of the United States with a dead soldier in my community.”
The 25-year-old Sgt. La David Johnson was a member of the 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He died during a mission fighting alongside Green Berets when Islamic militants ambushed them with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. Reportedly, the team didn’t have overhead armed air cover and was in unarmored pickup trucks.
Johnson’s body was left behind during the evacuation and was only found 2 days later in the desert of the Republic of Niger. His remains arrived back to the US on October 7th while Trump was preoccupied playing golf with Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Clearly, the current Commander-In-Chief has a lot to learn about being a Comforter-In Chief.
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Trump isn’t cut out to be president. He doesn’t have the type caring heart you need in these kind of times. What he said was real insensitive but I am sure he has no idea what he did because he’s not used to this type thing. He doesn’t know how to do it. Now it is turning into a big deal. I heard on tv this morning the rest of the soldiers family came out and agreed that Trump did say it. So that means once again he is lying for no reason than to save face and pick a fight. He has no proof he just goofed.
From the Washington Post:
The mother of a soldier killed in an ambush in Africa said Wednesday that President Trump “did disrespect my son” with remarks in a condolence telephone call.
Sgt. La David T. Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told The Washington Post that she was present during the call from the White House on Tuesday to Johnson’s widow, Myeshia Johnson. She also stood by an account of the call from Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) that Trump told Myeshia Johnson that her husband “must have known what he signed up for.”
“President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Jones-Johnson said.
Trump lashed back at Wilson. He denied her account in a Twitter message Wednesday. He said he had “proof” that the exchange did not go as Wilson had described.
In the words of Tony Schwartz – the author who ghost wrote Trump’s bestselling book The Art of the Deal – Trump is a “living black hole.”
You know, for nearly 10 yrs I worked professionally in the field of Forensic Mental Health (before switching to a ‘NOT as twisted” field of mental health). And I’ve certainly seen my share of some of the worse, OF THE WORSE, of mankind who have ever walked the face of this earth!
Which brings me to Trump. We’ve now witnessed this man for nearly 3 yrs in particular. His words and deeds (actions and reactions) speak VOLUMES about the man. No sane and reasonably intelligent person could ever take comfort in having such a despicable, dishonest and, possibly, extremely dangerous creature in the White House….smh!. Not if you love this country. Not if you love life.
Donald Trump is a arrogant ass bag. And a liar
From CNN:
From the second that White House chief of staff John Kelly appeared in the White House press briefing room on Thursday afternoon, you could tell something big was about to happen.
After all, President Donald Trump’s administration had been consumed over the last 24 hours with a “he said/she said” fight over what the President said to Myeshia Johnson, the widow of one of the four American servicemen killed in an ISIS ambush in Niger. Florida Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson — in an account backed up by a family member — said that Trump had told the widow of her husband that “he knew what he was getting into” — a phrase that deeply upset her. Trump insisted the call was polite and respectful, and that Wilson wasn’t telling the truth for partisan purposes.
Enter Kelly. A four-star general. A man widely respected even by those who roll their eyes at Trump. And, most significantly for the sake of today, a father who had lost a son in military combat. (Kelly’s son, Robert, was killed in Afghanistan in 2010.)
Kelly stepped to the podium and delivered a moving and raw recounting of how soldiers killed in action are transported from the field of battle to their homes. How they are honored by their peers. And how they are the best of us.
It was incredibly powerful stuff — made even more so by the back story of Kelly’s firsthand experience with his own son’s death. This wasn’t a politician saying the right words. This was a man who knows loss intimately. Who knows what it means to make the ultimate sacrifice.
No one who watched those first few minutes could help but be swayed by the power of Kelly’s words and his experiences. It was stunning.
Then, however, Kelly transitioned into an attempt to clean up Trump’s mess.
Kelly recalled what his best friend Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former commandant of the Marine Corps, had told him when Kelly’s own son was killed: “He was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed,” Kelly said Dunford told him. “He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1%. He knew what the possibilities were because we were at war. And when he died he was surrounded by the best men on this earth, his friends. That’s what the President tried to say to the four families the other day.”
Added Kelly of Trump: “He expressed his condolences in the best way he could.”
The takeaway? Yes, Trump said the words Wilson said he said. But, no, he didn’t mean them in the way Wilson (and Johnson, according to family) took them.
Gold Star mother Michelle Deford says that the White House should “put someone else in charge of condolence calls to Gold Star families,” referring to President Trump’s controversial call to a Gold Star widow.